Since the 1990s, the archives at the Petit Palais in Paris have gathered an unusual collection: thousands of drawings of jewelry designs, many of which have been shown only rarely, and never in France.
The collection, which has more than 5,500 sketches and gouaches, a method of painting using opaque colors, includes creations by French designers such as René Lalique for jewelry houses including Cartier and Boucheron.
“I’m never asked about these drawings, and I realize it’s because nobody knows they are here,” said Clara Roca, the exhibition’s co-curator.
That should soon change with “Jewelry Designs: Secrets of the Creation,” an exhibition scheduled from Tuesday through July 20, showcasing about 350 items, including about 235 drawings dating from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. (Tickets are 12 euros, or around $13, for adults; the museum recommends reserving a time slot.)
“We can tell every step of a jewelry designer’s process basically, and that’s what we’re going to tell with this exhibition,” said Ms. Roca, who specializes in post-1800 graphic arts and photography at the museum.
The exhibition’s first two sections will explore the designers’ inspirations, with studies made from nature or items in museums, as well as the drawing process. Work by designers such as Charles Jacqueau, an early 20th century master who often drew inspiration from Islamic art, is to be included. Mr. Jacqueau spent most of his career at Cartier, but some of his designs “are so whimsical,” Ms. Roca said, “you can just see it wouldn’t work for Cartier at all.”
The display’s third section highlights the importance of drawings to the artisans — modelers, engravers, jewelers, polishers and others — who executed designs. “Most of the time, there is nothing for all the people in the workshop to work from except the drawing,” Ms. Roca said.
For example, the Sycamore Pendant, an Art Nouveau-style piece made with diamonds, peridots and a baroque pearl between 1905 and 1910 by Georges Fouquet, is to be displayed alongside its drawing.
The fourth, and final, section is to assess the drawings as works of art, reflecting the designers’ artistic skills. Some, for example, would draw on both sides of translucent paper, giving the drawings color and depth.
There is “this incredible vibrancy, and creates the illusion of pink gold or white gold or other colors thanks to the materiality of the paper itself,” Ms. Roca said.
Others would use tricks to give the designs extra sparkle. Although the jewelry industry’s convention is to draw a gem as if the light source is in the upper-left-hand corner of the paper, a 1910 drawing of an emerald necklace by Raymond Subes shows a second, orange-tinted light source from the bottom-right corner. “It gives the drawing such another level, such a life,” Ms. Roca said. “It’s just so warm, and so present.”
Many of the designs in the exhibition were never actually produced, she said, and some of those that were might have been destroyed, lost or had their jewels reset. So in some cases, she said, the drawing “may stand as the last testimony of this wonderful creation.”
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